Asked, 25 years after his death, if she would marry him again,
Elizabeth replied: ‘In a heartbeat.’ When he first ‘sidled’ up to her on
the set of Cleopatra, she thought his lines corny. He thought she had
‘apocalyptic breasts’. He was in absolute awe of ‘her dark, unyielding
largesse’.
They were soon conducting an affair that was to be condemned by the Vatican. They were both married and she had said she could not have sex with men unless married to them.
The stories of the diamonds, the excess, the parties and the booze became an early definition of what we now call celebrity. Taylor was often in her boudoir. When Burton asked what she was doing, she would say: ‘Playing with my jewels.’
The on-screen sparring between them in Who’s Afraid Of Virginia Woolf? gave us a glimpse, we felt, of something real – though Liz played a vulgar, blowsy woman. The Elizabeth we mourn is intrinsically linked to this crazed love story.
Today’s beautiful people like Angelina and Brad often look basically miserable. Burton
and Taylor looked as if they were having the time of their lives. And they were. My head knows one of these lives was cut short by booze – but, my God, one look at Taylor’s sheer gorgeousness still makes my heart leap.
Burton once wrote to her: ‘I am forever being punished by the gods for stealing fire and trying to put it out and the fire, of course, is you.’
They were soon conducting an affair that was to be condemned by the Vatican. They were both married and she had said she could not have sex with men unless married to them.
The stories of the diamonds, the excess, the parties and the booze became an early definition of what we now call celebrity. Taylor was often in her boudoir. When Burton asked what she was doing, she would say: ‘Playing with my jewels.’
The on-screen sparring between them in Who’s Afraid Of Virginia Woolf? gave us a glimpse, we felt, of something real – though Liz played a vulgar, blowsy woman. The Elizabeth we mourn is intrinsically linked to this crazed love story.
Today’s beautiful people like Angelina and Brad often look basically miserable. Burton
and Taylor looked as if they were having the time of their lives. And they were. My head knows one of these lives was cut short by booze – but, my God, one look at Taylor’s sheer gorgeousness still makes my heart leap.
Burton once wrote to her: ‘I am forever being punished by the gods for stealing fire and trying to put it out and the fire, of course, is you.’
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